Botched spa by “Docride’s Luxury Again Inc.” destroyed my Hermes Ostrich bag. Think long and hard about non-H Spa work!

[toujours*chic]

If you own an Hermes leather item for which you paid a lot of coin, why on earth would you go anywhere but the mother ship for repairs and refurbishment? I have never ever used a 3rd party to rehab any of my precious H leather. Caveat emptor.

I am very sorry that the leather restoration was not to your standard by this craftsperson. But I do not understand why the need to call someone out here. Again- people, take your H treasures to Hermes for repairs. Please take your dispute with this 3rd party leather restorer elsewhere. I do not come here to read contentious diatribe.

This thread should be removed. The reputation of a long-time TPF'r is being unnecessarily damaged.

 

[Evia]

I don’t see anything “contentious” about the awful outcome for those bags. If this thread is to be removed then so should the advice threads promoting this business.

 

[duna]

I'm sorry this happened to you, also IMHO opinion the breifcase was gorgeous as it was before, but that's just me and it's too late anyway.. I only send my bags to Hermès spa, which is even cheaper than what you payed, and even they mess things up sometimes: many years ago I sent a Vache Naturelle Birkin to the Hermès spa and they ruined it (I didn't see it but my SM told me) so they made me a brand new one free of charge!

 

[BowieFan1971]

If you own an Hermes leather item for which you paid a lot of coin, why on earth would you go anywhere but the mother ship for repairs and refurbishment? I have never ever used a 3rd party to rehab any of my precious H leather. Caveat emptor.

I am very sorry that the leather restoration was not to your standard by this craftsperson. But I do not understand why the need to call someone out here. Again- people, take your H treasures to Hermes for repairs. Please take your dispute with this 3rd party leather restorer elsewhere. I do not come here to read contentious diatribe.

This thread should be removed. The reputation of a long-time TPF'r is being unnecessarily damaged.

The OP did not insult or disparage her. She simply told what happened and showed pictures of the evidence. If anyone has damaged her reputation, it is Docride for taking on a bag she could not handle or was not able to do quality work on, then did not provide good customer service service when it went south. And until this thread, the jobs that did not go well were undisclosed. All the facts were not out in the open and she was enjoying all of the good results of others promoting her services on this site. She also used this site to establish herself as an “expert”...I am sorry, but the pics of this restoration gone wrong leave room to question that and the fact she does not want to take responsibility for them shows she knows it too.

You can’t pick and choose. If you want only good press, then handle your business accordingly. Some people, because of the nature of the damage or because it was worked on by a 3rd party prior to this, cannot take their bag to Hermès and they have a right to know the risks involved in using her service. Yes, caveat emptor....but you deserve to know the risks so you can truly make that judgment call. Her services have been oversold here for who knows how long. I saw one of her “camouflage” bags being proudly touted by a member and I was not impressed with the workmanship, to say the least, so I was not surprised to hear about this. Yet if I had not seen those two things, I might have thought about heeding her advice or sending her a bag to get it back sooner. Glad I didn’t.

 

[Hermes Nuttynut]

If you own an Hermes leather item for which you paid a lot of coin, why on earth would you go anywhere but the mother ship for repairs and refurbishment? I have never ever used a 3rd party to rehab any of my precious H leather. Caveat emptor.

I am very sorry that the leather restoration was not to your standard by this craftsperson. But I do not understand why the need to call someone out here. Again- people, take your H treasures to Hermes for repairs. Please take your dispute with this 3rd party leather restorer elsewhere. I do not come here to read contentious diatribe.

This thread should be removed. The reputation of a long-time TPF'r is being unnecessarily damaged.

My point exactly!!

 

[QuelleFromage]

There are threads on this forum about nearly every big reseller and many companies that service H items (Tiemasters, for instance), as well as the many third parties who sell to Hermès bag owners (insert makers like MaiTai and 7RP, Orange Shields, etc.). Some are praise, some are callouts of bad experiences, some are quite aggressive, and to some extent people are more likely to post negative experiences.
I do not see why this thread’s any different. OP has been restrained compared to some threads I’ve seen, and he refrained from naming the restorer until basically pushed to do it. At least one other member shared they’d had a similar experience. For me this was new and helpful information should I ever consider such work (H spa would, btw, not necessarily do the degreasing work, and would not do the recoloring). The OP has posted photos. We can all form our own opinions, but shutting down this thread? If it’s not to your taste just pass it by.....

 

[chicinthecity777]

Why should this thread be removed? People are entitled post their claims here, backed up by the facts, which in this case I think OP did. If people had good experience with a service provider, they are also entitled to voice that, but should also be backed up by facts.

 

[carabelli888]

I see no problem with this thread. I actually learned a lot from it. Just because the “guru” is a longstanding TPF member doesn’t mean that OP shouldn’t share his experience. All experiences are important & helpful to share which is why I believe most of us come onto this forum for. Most of us are trying to look up & gain knowledge about our handbags, etc. I’m actually glad I read this thread. It would be a shame to censor people’s experiences.

 

[Mimmy]

In the interim, I reached out to LS founder Garry Gallagher who told me he felt confident about doing a very conservative restoration on the bag which would bring it back to its original color. Feeling happy with this direction, I contacted the “guru” to tell her that I decided against moving forward with my bag with her. Guess what? She had proceeded to color my bag without my explicit consent. My fiancé—who was with me for all these phone conversations—and I were horrified.

This piece of the story has been somewhat lost in this thread. @roy40 stated that he never gave his explicit consent to color his bag and in fact had decided against doing so.

Although this may be a case of “he said, she said” this really bothers me. Of course it is too late now and although after the degreasing the bag looked worse, it seems that it still might have been remedied in the hands of the right person.

Proceeding to color the bag without a clear agreement to do so is unacceptable imo.

 

[WhiteBus]

The reason why the thread should have been removed is because the person, whose work was being discussed, was not named, but identified by inference.
It is possible that reputation of other craftsman could have been wrongly maligned.
Shortly after the start of this thread I did share this opinion with the original poster with a PM
and received a perfectly decent response.

Like many others, it seems strange that the 'guru' stopped communicating, because some explanation seems in order. Possibly there has been advice not to engage into further correspondence or comment.

 

[lulilu]

The most helpful, illuminating part of this thread were the before and after photos IMHO. It would be helpful if others who have had both good and bad experiences could post such photos to accompany their opinions.

 

[CaviarChanel]

This is a fair remark - ". ... who have had both good and bad experiences could post such photos to accompany their opinions "

 

[Mimmy]

I think that closing this thread is not warranted unless it becomes a thread to personally malign the restorer or others.

In this case the photos unfortunately speak for themselves.

I have contacted Docride for one of her products sold on eBay and she was kind and helpful. I would not have known about her if I had not found her on tPF.

If only positive opinions are allowed to remain though, imo this would be a tacit endorsement of her services.

 

[toujours*chic]

There are threads on this forum about nearly every big reseller and many companies that service H items (Tiemasters, for instance), as well as the many third parties who sell to Hermès bag owners (insert makers like MaiTai and 7RP, Orange Shields, etc.). Some are praise, some are callouts of bad experiences, some are quite aggressive, and to some extent people are more likely to post negative experiences.
I do not see why this thread’s any different. OP has been restrained compared to some threads I’ve seen, and he refrained from naming the restorer until basically pushed to do it. At least one other member shared they’d had a similar experience. For me this was new and helpful information should I ever consider such work (H spa would, btw, not necessarily do the degreasing work, and would not do the recoloring). The OP has posted photos. We can all form our own opinions, but shutting down this thread? If it’s not to your taste just pass it by.....

Done. However, I still wonder whether the OP was really trying to provide a public service or to retaliate. Take your H stuff to H for repairs- get the mantra?!

 

[xray]

We are all literate here so we can decide for ourselves based on objective evidence. Is the story plausible ? It's buyer beware for all goods and services. Just because someone had a good experience doesn't guarantee that you will. We also just need to ignore the editorializing and understand we are all different in our expectations and communications. It's the internet - how much do we know about anyone who posts ? Leave the threads up so people can decide for themselves.